The Clearing
by EndlessMemories
Summary: She was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts when she reached the clearing. Its beauty still took her breath away. She stared in awe for several moments, taking in and remembering everything. Remember… yes, that is what she had come here to do. pre-DH


**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything you recognize its just me having some fun with my writing :D **

The Clearing

She walked out of the old house filled with so many haunting memories and slowly made her way down the overgrown path. Reality began to settle in as she realized the amount of time that had passed since the house has been inhabited, and since two laughing teen-agers had last wandered down this very same path. No. She stopped herself, putting her imaginary walls back up. She had to have strength, if only for a few more minutes. She couldn't let herself go back there. Not here, not yet. She stopped to take a deep breath and looked up at the skies. The grey clouds slowly moved across the faded moon. She had always loved the moon and how it decided to show itself in the late afternoon this time of year.

She smiled thoughtfully to herself as a butterfly flew across her path and up toward the thunder clouds that were currently promising rain. _Oh, how I hope it rains, please rain._ She silently begged the skies. The rain made her feel alive, as though she was almost a part of nature itself. It freed her, and comforted her; it was her shelter to hide her tears, and for these reasons, she loved the rain with every fiber of her being.

The path had become dense due to the lack of use and as she began to enter the woods, the underbrush tore at her skirt, leaving pieces of material behind. For a moment she started to regret the loss of such a fine article of clothing, until she realized that what she had come to do was more important than a new skirt. Besides, she should have known better than to wear a skirt here of all places. Here, there was no one to judge her appearance, no one to hide her tears from, and no one who would worry about if she would make it through- and some how those thoughts were freeing in so many ways. For, what did she care if, upon her return home, she was a complete mess? By that time, it would be all over, by then she would have her closure to finally move on and let go of him. So, who really cared if her make-up was running, her hair was unkempt and her clothes were torn? He had always liked it better that way, anyway.

She was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts when she reached the clearing. Its beauty, to this day, still took her breath away. She stared in awe for several moments, taking in everything. It amazed her how little it had changed over the years. The clearing was barely thirty feet wide from left to right and twenty feet straight across. A small pond filled the clearing to the point that there wasn't room to walk around the entire edge without getting wet feet. A weeping willow overhung into the pond on the left side, along with the various of other trees surrounding the pond in close proximity of each other and a small waterfall quietly trickled down into the water from the bank on the other side. The trees reminded her of small children gathering in close to hear a story, but this was a story only nature could tell. The tranquility of the clearing along with its remoteness gave the area a sacred atmosphere that had hushed the approaching teen-agers years ago and had had the same effect on her today.

She slowly took off her shoes and dipped her bare feet into the cool water as she began to make her way over to the bank. The bank itself made a muddy, but suitable ledge to sit on, which she did- therefore ruining her skirt even more. _You don't care about your skirt remember? _A tiny voice in her head said as she sat down, which she answered back with, _Remember… yes, that is what I have come here to do. _

In an instant of sweet release, she let all her pretenses fall away and the memories she had so long kept at bay came flooding back to her. She looked up at the skies once again just as a light rain began to fall and tears filled her eyes as a mixture of emotions welled up and broke free from her self-restraints. As it began to pour she slowly slid down to the wet ground, crying for pain and hurt, loss and suffering, love and joy, peace and freedom…but most of all, she cried for him.

Him- the person that had haunted her every waking thought since that fateful day. The day when her world and suddenly come to an end, the day when time itself should have frozen… but it didn't. The world continued on in its own strange way, with or without him, and it left her behind- stranded. She had let her shy, quiet self fade away in his presence. However, just as she was comfortable and assured, he left her. She was trapped, insecure and stranded in a world that he had brought her to, and then, just before she had begun to really feel at home in it, but it was too late to go back, he was gone. She felt like an astronaut wandering around on the moon. Alone.

Who was he? His name was Harry, and she loved him.

Harry Potter- the one who had preoccupied her dreams since the day she met him. He had captured her by his laughter, and he was captured by her love. Over the last summer months, they became inseparable, yet their parent's thought nothing of their long days spent together, after all, it was only summer love. But it was so much more than that, they spent hours talking about under the willow tree about what was to come, their future, and, eventually, marriage. They wanted the same things, and nothing could change the fact that they were in love, not even the fact that Harry had to defeat Voldemort- the most evil wizard to ever live. He told her that she was his butterfly; she had come out of her shell for him, and nothing was ever going to change that…or so they thought.

The separation was hard on both of them, but they were able to concentrate on the tasks ahead of them. They wrote to each other every chance they had, and their love endured, perhaps even grew stronger in the separation. Nevertheless, their seemingly perfect world was soon ended on a cold night in October.

By the time her memories had reached this point, the rain was beginning to lessen and she slowly lifted her tremulous body and made her way to the willow tree. The tree, though perhaps hundreds of years old, held a lifetime of memories for her. It was her timeline, something she had come to for comfort since she was a child, and now, it was her sanctuary.

She approached the trunk of the willow tree and slowly sat down, wiping her tears away and sighing as she looked up at the magnificent tree. _So many memories… so many lives destroyed by the war…_ His name was Harry, Harry James Potter. He had been sent to defeat Voldemort, and he succeeded, except that his life was taken at the end of the horrible exchange. The war of the wizarding world had ended her life as she knew it, and it had eventually ended his as well. Her name was Ginny Weasley and she had come back to remember.


End file.
